KC5- Corporate Strategy and Contemporary Issues Assignment ... · KC5- Corporate Strategy and Contemporary Issues – Assignment ... Microsoft Word format. Assignment soft copy in

KC5 - Assignment -Guidelines

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KC5- Corporate Strategy and Contemporary Issues – Assignment Guidelines

SOURCES

Student can source material for this assignment from company websites, newspaper articles, company

information/reports from the web or library data, text books or journal articles. All sources must be

properly referenced and cited.

Do not use unverifiable non-academic sources such as Wikipedia and other Google sources

Students are required to be constructively critical and analytical. In addition students have the

opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the subject through a practical and realistic

approach to their basic research methods, discussion of relevant real life applications and

demonstrations of strong essay writing and referencing techniques.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Following criteria are used to assess your work

• Find information appropriate to the task

• Evaluate and organize information in a logical and coherent way

• Critically analyse, Evaluate and synthesis the information gathered

• Conclusion and recommendations

• Communicate information clearly and accurately

• Refer to information sources accurately

• Structure of the Assignment


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REPORT STRUCTURE

Paper Size: A4

Words: 3000 – 3500 words (without words count of the appendixes)

Printing Margins: LHS; RHS: 1 Inch 25 mm

Binding Margin: ½ Inch 12 mm

Header and Footer: 1 Inch

Basic Font Size: 12

Line Spacing: 1.5

Font Style: Times New Roman

Soft Copy: Assignment copied to a CD in Microsoft Word (MS WORD) format only

Appendixes / Annexures – Appendixes also should be in numbering order (reference of the annexures

including page number of the annexure should be mentioned in the relevant place of the report).

Annexures should be copied in a separate folder in the CD.

Important Information for Students

Assignment Submission

The duly completed Assignment should consist of a Cover Page (Please refer the folder as “Cover Page”

uploaded in the website under “KC5 Assignment Guidelines”.

Assessment Cover Sheet – Assessment Cover Sheet should be completed and copied in the CD in a

separate folder.

Statement of Originality of Submitted Work – The duly completed “Statement of Originality of

Submitted Work” should be submitted together with the Assignment soft copy copied to a CD in


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Microsoft Word format. Assignment soft copy in the PDF format will not be accepted under any

circumstances.

Template - CD Label – The duly completed assignment should be copied to a CD. The CD should be

labelled according to the CD label template. The CD label should be pasted in the front side of the CD.

(Appendixes can be included in the CD in a different folder as “Appendixes”. It is essential to follow the

instructions given above when you completing your report/ Assignment).

The duly completed Assignment hard copy, soft copy (MS Word format) and Assessment Cover Sheet

soft copy should be copied to a CD and the CD should be labelled as instructions given and handed

over to the Examination Division together with the duly completed Admission Card and Statement of

Originality of Submitted Work document according to the submission guidelines on the submission

date.

Note: If the CD is not working properly your Assignment will be rejected. You should

ensure that the CD submitted to Examination division is working properly.

CA Sri Lanka website references related to “KC5 – Assignment Guidelines”

CA Sri Lanka has uploaded the following templates and sample documents for your reference in

completing the Assignment.

KC5 – Assignment Guidelines

KC5 - Assignment -Cover Page

KC5 - Assignment -Assessment Cover Sheet

KC5 - Assignment -Statement of Originality of Submitted Work

KC5 - Assignment -Template - CD Label


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Assignment Resubmission

Your report will be rejected in the event of plagiarism, or failure to not limit the assignment to the required

word limit, or in a case of an issue related to the report structure or any other unfair practice. However,

you will be given an opportunity to resubmit the assignment. You should maintain the same procedure

explained under “Assignment Submission” given above when you are resubmitting the assignment. The

resubmission date will be notified.

Only additional attempt is given as a resubmission if your assignment is rejected at the first submission.

However, if your assignment is rejected at the both attempts, your attempts get cancelled for the

prescribed examination session and you will not be given another attempt to submit your assignment in

this examination/ session under any circumstances. You have to sit in the future examination.

Unfair Practice and Plagiarism - Please note that plagiarism is treated as a serious offence and therefore

the work you produce must be original although you may work in groups in some instances.

Where there is any evidence of unfair practice CA Sri Lanka takes the matter very seriously and has a

rigorous procedure in place to investigate the alleged offence. Unfair practice can be defined as gaining

an unpermitted advantage by cheating. It involves breaking the examination regulations, copying from

others, plagiarizing, impersonating someone else or making false claims. All work should be the student’s

own effort.

Plagiarism involves taking or using another person’s thought or writings and presenting them as if they

were your own. To avoid suspicion of this, you must acknowledge all your sources, using the Harvard

referencing system. You must not copy out passages of text from a publication word for word or simply

make slight changes. You must use your own words, unless you insert a direct quotation but, even if using

your own words, you must still acknowledge any ideas or concepts that are not your own; if you plagiarize

inadvertently, you will still be penalized. There is information uploaded on how to learn to reference and

avoid plagiarism.

As part of its commitment to quality and the maintenance of academic standards, CA Sri Lanka reserves

the right to use plagiarism detection systems. Therefore, it is important that you familiarize yourself with


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the definition of plagiarism;, as anyone found to have plagiarised work or any other form of unfair practice

will face the most severe sanctions including excluding and /or rejection of assignment, cancellation of

marks, in appropriate cases. There are a number of websites that claim to check plagiarism in work that

is uploaded to them. You should however not use these sites because, invariably, they are a means to get

a copy of your work and then sell it to others. This will also make your own work appear as if it has been

plagiarised from those who have purchased it.

Harvard Referencing

All sources of information must be referenced using “Harvard referencing” where a reference

listing should be included at the end of the assignment. (Please refer the document uploaded as “Harvard

Referencing” for further details.

Please note that the submission date given for this assignment is the final date that you can hand over

the assignment. No late submissions are allowed.

Introduction

As a student, it is important that you identify in your assessment when you are using the words or ideas

of another author. The most accepted way of acknowledging the work of another author is to use a

referencing system.

The following guide tells you why you need to use a referencing system, shows you how to insert

references in the text of your assignments, and shows you how to compile a reference list. While there

are many variations on the ‘Harvard’ system, the one presented in this guide is the most simple. It does

away with most usages of ‘p’ and ‘pp’ to signify page numbers and it replaces some of the commas with

colons. Also, this guide is by no means an exhaustive list of all the referencing conventions that you will

require in your academic environment.


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Why you should use a referencing system

As a part of an academic community, it is important that you show the reader where you have used

someone else’s ideas or words. Failure to properly reference using the Harvard system may make the

reader think that you are cheating by claiming someone else’s work as your own. In the academic

environment, we call this plagiarism and it is seen as a very serious offence. Please remember that

plagiarism is not just when you directly copy words from another student’s or expert’s work. Plagiarism

also occurs when you re-word someone else’s ideas in your own work and you do not give credit to

the original source.

Plagiarism can have disastrous consequences for students. If you are suspected of plagiarism you may

find that your assignment receives a zero mark.

On a more positive note, referencing is important for reasons other than avoiding plagiarism. When

you reference correctly you are demonstrating that you have read widely on a topic. You are also

supporting your hypothesis with comments from expert authors. This lends credibility to your own

work. Also, by correctly referencing, you allow the marker or reader to follow-up your references and

to check the validity of your arguments for themselves. This is an important part of the academic

process as it leads to student accountability.

Accurate referencing

In order to have an accurate record of what you have researched and therefore an accurate

reference, it is important that you write down the details of your sources as you study. When taking

notes, use a separate page for each new book, journal article, or electronic source. At the top of

each page, clearly record the following information for future reference.

For books, record:

• The author’s or editor’s name (or names)

• The year the book was published

• The title of the book

• If it is an edition other than the first


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• The city the book was published in

• The name of the publisher

For journal articles record:

• The author’s name or names

• The year in which the journal was published

• The title of the article

• The title of the journal

• The page number/s of the article in the journal

• As much other information as you can find about the journal, for example the volume and issue

numbers

For electronic resources, try to collect the information on the left if it is available, but also record:

• The date you accessed the source

• The electronic address or email

• The type of electronic resource (email, discussion forum, WWW page, etc.)

In addition to these details, when you are taking notes, if you copy direct quotations or if you put the

author’s ideas in your own words, write down the page numbers you got the information from.

Writing the assessment: What do I need to reference?

When you are writing your assessment, be sure to type in reference information as you add in the ideas

of other authors. This will save you time and will ensure that you reference all sources properly.

Whenever you use someone else’s ideas or words, you must put in a reference. The only exception to

this rule is when the information you have read somewhere is common knowledge or ‘public domain’

information. For example, you would not need to include a reference if you stated in an assignment

that Shakespeare wrote plays and sonnets in Elizabethan times.

Always reference:


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• Direct quotations – this is when you copy another author’s material word-for-word. You should

show the reader that it is a direct quote by placing the material in inverted commas.

Traditionally, double inverted commas have been used (“) but it is now acceptable, and preferable

to use single inverted commas (‘). Sometimes it is difficult to avoid the direct quotation as the

author’s words may precisely describe the point you are trying to make. However, do try to

avoid the overuse of direct quotations; try to paraphrase the author’s work where possible.

Please note that when you use direct quotations, you must reproduce the author’s words exactly,

including all spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and errors. You may show the reader that you

recognise an error and that you are correctly quoting the author by placing the term ‘sic’ in

brackets after the error.

• Paraphrasing – this is when you take another author’s ideas and put them into your own words.

You are still copying someone else’s work, so you must reference it. You do not need to use

inverted commas when you paraphrase, but you must clearly show the reader the original source

of your information.

Referencing in the text of your assessment

The following section shows you a number of different examples when quoting and paraphrasing in the

text of your assessment. In all references, you will need to list the author/editor name/s and the year

of publication. The year of publication can be found on the first couple of pages of the book, along with

the other bibliographic information. Look for the author’s name, a copyright symbol and then a date.

This will be the date of publication. In most references you will also need to list the page number/s

where you found the specific information. The only type of reference where this is not required is

when you paraphrase a summary of an entire piece of work. As a hypothetical example, fictitious author

John Phillips might have written a history book in 1999 that examines generational changes. You might

summarise and correctly reference the entire gist of his book in the following way.

Phillips (1999) suggests that generational change is inevitable and continuous.


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In all other circumstances, please follow the guidelines below and be sure to include the author, date

and page number/s. The formats are similar for each example so please note the use of punctuation,

spacing and the order of information.

Direct quote from a book or journal article with one author

When organising our time, Adair (1988: 51) states that ‘the centrepiece will tend to

be goals and objectives’.

OR

When organising our time ‘the centrepiece will tend to be goals and objectives’

(Adair, 1988: 51).

In these examples, ‘Adair’ is the author, ‘1988’ is the year of publication and ‘51’ is the page number

where the direct quote can be found.

Direct quote from a book or journal article with two authors

McCarthy and Hatcher (1996: 69-70) insist that with presentations ‘structure must

be clear and precise’.

OR

With presentations, ‘structure must be clear and precise’ (McCarthy and Hatcher,

1996: 69-70).

In these examples, the quote went over two pages therefore the page numbers were represented as

69-70, rather than as a single number. Also notice from the examples so far, that when the quote ends

the sentence, the full stop comes after the inverted comma.


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Direct quote from a book or journal article with three authors

Fisher, Ury and Patton (1991: 37) suggest that when emotional issues cloud

negotiation, ‘some thoughts are best left unsaid’.

OR

‘Some thoughts are best left unsaid’ when emotional issues cloud negotiation (Fisher,

Ury and Patton, 1991: 37).

If hypothetical authors Morris, Ling, Brown, Smith, and Diaz wrote a book published in 2000, a direct

quote would look like this. Note that in the next example, ‘et al’ means ‘and others’.

Direct quote from a book or journal article with more than three authors

Morris et al (2000: 47) state that ‘the debate of these particular issues should be left

to representative committees’.

When you paraphrase, it will look much the same as the direct quotation examples, but without the

inverted commas. For example, if we paraphrased an example from the McCarthy and Hatcher book,

it would look like this.

By improving your posture you can improve how you communicate feelings of power

and confidence (McCarthy and Hatcher, 1996: 111).

When paraphrasing, use the same referencing style and conventions as you would for direct quotes, but

with the material from the source put into your own words, and the inverted commas omitted. Below

is another comparative example of the direct quote versus paraphrasing.


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Direct quote and paraphrasing from a source with a ‘corporate’ or government author

The DfEE (2001: 8) suggest that each year ‘some have estimated the cost to the

country of poor literacy and numeracy skills to be as high as £10 billion’.

OR - PARAPHRASE

The effect of low levels of adult numeracy and literacy skills could be costing Britain

around £10 billion each year (DfEE, 2001: 8).

You might also like to rearrange the quote so that the reference comes at the end, as you have been

shown in previous examples.

When you are researching, you may come across a situation where the same author has written two

books in the same year. To distinguish one title from another in your referencing, place a lower-case

letter after the publication date, with ‘a’ signalling the first reference, and ‘b’ signalling the second, and

so on.

Sometimes the author you are quoting from will quote another author to support his or her argument,

much in the same way that you do when writing assignments. Sometimes you want to use the same

quote that the author of the source has used. When you do this, use the format below.

Eisenberg and Smith (in Bolton, 1986: 85) agree that ‘it is hard to assign general

meaning to any isolated nonverbal sign’.

In the case above, Bolton in his 1996 publication has quoted Eisenberg’s and Smith’s research to prove

a point he was making about non-verbal communication.

If the author of a source is anonymous, replace the author’s surname with the title of the work in the

brackets containing the reference. Consider the following fictitious example.


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The flora and fauna of Britain ‘has been transported to almost every corner of the

globe since colonial times’ (Plants and Animals of Britain, 1942: 8).

Reference newspaper and magazine articles in the same way you would for other books and journals.

However, when the author is anonymous, use the system below (adapted from Lewis, 1999:

26).

The Guardian reported that twenty-nine inmates were participating in the programme

(‘Serving time’, 1996: 21).

When you paraphrase, sometimes you might be rephrasing the words and ideas you have found in more

than one book or journal article. If you find that a number of sources say similar things about a topic,

an example of the correct referencing style is demonstrated below. Notice in the example below how

the listed sources are separated by a semicolon.

The semicolon can be used to separate two sections of a compound sentence that

have a similar theme (Turabian, 1996: 56; Petelin and Durham, 1992:169).

Sometimes you may wish to use material from lectures, discussions, interviews, or distance learning

courses to supplement your assignments. Use the following conventions to ensure that your referencing

is correct (adapted from Lewis, 1999: 26).

Mr Bob Builder, Managing Director of Builder’s Construction, stated in an interview

on 5 September 2000 that ‘customers were increasingly asking for traditional

methods and materials to be used in construction projects’.

Dr Wilma Flintstone stated in her lecture on 5 September 2000 that acid jazz has

roots as far back as 1987.


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Adult learners should learn the art of effective note taking for the simple reason that

students ‘are more likely to remember what they have heard or read if they take an

active part in their learning’ (Dhann, 2001:3).

OR, IF THE AUTHOR IS UNKNOWN

Adult learners should learn the art of effective note taking for the simple reason that

students ‘are more likely to remember what they have heard or read if they take an

active part in their learning’ (Department of Lifelong Learning, 2001: 3).

Electronic sources such as WWW pages, electronic databases and electronic journals are cited in the

text in much the same way as traditional print sources, with the exception of page numbers. The

author’s name is followed by a publication date, but no page numbers are listed. If no publication date

is available, and this might be the case for WWW pages, then where the date should go, insert (n.d.)

which stands for ‘no date’. If no author is listed for an electronic source, use the title of the publication

in the same way as you would for any other anonymous source.

Creating a reference list

All of the sources you refer to in the main body of your assignment need to be listed at the end of the

assignment in a reference list. In a reference list, you only need to list those sources from which you

have either quoted or paraphrased. For example, you do not have to list books you used for background

reading purposes.

When creating a reference list, the sources should be listed alphabetically by author’s surname, should

be left justified, and the references should never be preceded by a bullet-point or number. Where the

author is anonymous or unknown for any one source, insert that source in the alphabetical list using

the title of the source instead of the author’s name. All sources should be listed together; there should

not be separate lists for books versus journal articles versus electronic sources. The reference list

should be on a separate page from the rest of the assignment and should be simply titled ‘References’

or ‘Literature Cited’ and the title should be in the same font and size as the other headings in your

assignment.


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When you use the Harvard System, you are only usually required to produce a reference list. However,

some lecturers and tutors may want you to produce a bibliography instead of a reference list. In cases

where you are asked to produce a bibliography, you must list all sources you have consulted, regardless

of whether you cited from them or not. Also, some lecturers or tutors may ask you to produce an

annotated bibliography or reference list. This simply means that after each source listed, you write a

couple of sentences that appraise the book’s usefulness in relation to the topic.

The following is a guide to how to list references in a reference list.

Book with one author

Adair, J. (1988) Effective time management: How to save time and spend it wisely, London:

Pan Books.

Book with two authors

McCarthy, P. and Hatcher, C. (1996) Speaking persuasively: Making the most of your

presentations, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Book with three or more authors

Fisher, R., Ury, W. and Patton, B. (1991) Getting to yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving

in, 2nd edition, London: Century Business.


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Book – second or later edition

Barnes, R. (1995) Successful study for degrees, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.

Book by same author in the same year

Napier, A. (1993a) Fatal storm, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Napier, A. (1993b) Survival at sea, Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Book with an editor

Danaher, P. (ed.) (1998) Beyond the ferris wheel, Rockhampton: CQU Press.

If you have used a chapter in a book written by someone other than the editor

Byrne, J. (1995) ‘Disabilities in tertiary education’, in Rowan, L. and McNamee, J.

(ed.) Voices of a Margin, Rockhampton: CQU Press.

Books with an anonymous or unknown author

The University Encyclopedia (1985) London: Roydon.

If unpublished, verbal sources such as interviews and lectures are not reproduced in the reference list,

you can put any published course materials that you have used in the reference list using the conventions

below.

Written course material, for example distance learning unit material

Dhann, S. (2001) CAE0001LWR Unit 5: Note taking skills from lectures and readings, Exeter:

Department of Lifelong Learning.



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Department of Lifelong Learning (2001), CAE0001LWR Unit 5: Note taking skills from lectures

and readings, Exeter: Author.

(NB – ‘Author’ at the end means that the publisher is the same as the author)

Government publications

Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), (2001) Skills for life: The national strategy

for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills, Nottingham: DfEE Publications.

Conference papers

Hart, G., Albrecht, M., Bull, R. and Marshall, L. (1992) ‘Peer consultation: A professional

development opportunity for nurses employed in rural settings’, Infront Outback – Conference

Proceedings, Australian Rural Health Conference, Toowoomba, pp. 143 – 148.

Newspaper articles

Cumming, F. (1999) ‘Tax-free savings push’, Sunday Mail, 4 April, p. 1.


‘Tax-free savings push’, Sunday Mail (4 April 1999), p. 3.

The conventions for listing journal articles are similar to books, but note the extra information required

in the example below and apply this to all journal article listings.

Journal article

Muller, V. (1994) ‘Trapped in the body: Transsexualism, the law, sexual identity’, The

Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 3, August, pp. 103-107.


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In this example, Muller has written the journal article ‘Trapped in the body: Transsexualism, the law,

sexual identity’ and it has appeared in the journal ‘Australian Feminist Law Journal, in it’s 3rd volume that

was published in August of 1994. The article appears on pages 103 to 107 of the journal. Please note

that sometimes, instead of ‘volume’ there may be an ‘issue’ number, and instead of a month of

publication, there may be a season. Sometimes there will be a volume number and an issue number. In

those cases, list both the volume and issue numbers as has been done below.

Journal article with both volume and issue number

Muller, V. (1994) ‘Trapped in the body: Transsexualism, the law, sexual identity’, The

Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, August, pp. 103-107.

Electronic and web based references can be listed in the following ways.

Journal article from CD-ROM, electronic database, or journal

Skargren, E.I. & Oberg, B. (1998) ‘Predictive factors for 1-year outcome of low-back

and neck pain in patients treated in primary care: Comparison between the treatment

strategies chiropractic and physiotherapy’, Pain [Electronic], vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 201208,

Available: Elsevier/ScienceDirect/ O304-3959(98)00101-8, [8 Feb 1999].

In this example, [Electronic] refers to the type of media that you found the source on. If you found the

source on a CD-ROM, you would put [CD-ROM] in the square brackets instead of ‘Electronic’. As

with a normal journal example, the volume number, issue number and page numbers are listed. At the

end of this example, note that the name of the database has been listed, along with the

identification/access number of the article, and an access date (in square brackets).

Examples of other electronic references are listed in the box below.


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Electronic mail (e-mail)

Johnston, R. (2001) Access courses for women, e-mail to NIACE Lifelong Learning

Mailing List ([email protected]), 22 Aug. [24 Aug 2001].

OR

Robinson, T. (2001) Re: Information on course structure, e-mail to S. Dhann

([email protected]), 12 Jul. [13 Jul 2001].

Discussion list

Berkowitz, P. (1995) April 3, ‘Sussy’s gravestone’, Mark Twain Forum [Online], 3 Apr,

Available e-mail: [email protected] [3 Apr 1995].

World Wide Web page

Young, C. (2001) English Heritage position statement on the Valletta Convention,

[Online], Available: http://www.archaeol.freeuk.com/EHPostionStatement.htm [24

Aug 2001].

In the WWW page example, sometimes the author’s details or the date of publication/update might be

missing. When the author’s name is missing, use the name of the web page to list the reference, as you

would with any other anonymous source. If the date of publication or update is missing, omit this

information, but be sure to still include in square brackets the date you accessed the information.

Conclusion

It is extremely important that students correctly reference all paraphrasing and direct quotations. While

there are many referencing rules and conventions under the Harvard system, in most cases it is generally

important in the text of an assignment to show the reader the author’s name, date of publication and

page numbers of the original source. In the reference list, it is important that the author’s name, the

year of publication, relevant titles, and other access information is faithfully reproduced. At first, the

http://www.archaeol.freeuk.com/EHPostionStatement.htm




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referencing system may seem time-consuming and fussy but it will soon become part of the long list of

skills you will have gained as a professional course studying student.

Documents

KC5- Corporate Strategy and Contemporary Issues Assignment ... · KC5- Corporate Strategy and Contemporary Issues – Assignment ... Microsoft Word format. Assignment soft copy in